Fraser Franklin Bingham

From the Florida Edition of Makers of
America,, Volume III pgs 53-55;
Copyright 1909 B. F. Johnson. Transcribed and submitted for use in the FLGenWeb Project, Inc. by Laverne Tornow, April 4,
2009.

Frasier Franklin Bingham, saw mill operator and lumber merchant, secretary
and assistant general manager of the Southern States Lumber Company of
Pensacola, Fla., is a native of Michigan, having been born at Yankee
Springs, that State on March 25, 1872.

His business success is a marked example of the limitless possibilities of
advancement which lie open to every young American with application and a
determination to overcome whatever obstacles there may be in the most
frequently tortuous pathway from obscurity to success.

With no greater educational asset than a common school education acquired in
the public schools of Chicago and St. Louis, and a proficiency in
stenography attained while attending night classes in a business college,
Frasier Franklin Bingham launched out into the world, when he was sixteen
years of age with a set purpose in carving his own destiny from the great
mountains of relentless conditions as he should meet them. He has never
swerved a hairís breadth from his initial resolve, with the result that but
few men of his early opportunities have attained at his age, the measure of
success with which his efforts have been crowned.

He came to Pensacola from Kansas City in1890, and secured a position as a
stenographer and clerk of all tasks which might he imposed upon him, with
the then Southern States Land and Timber Company, now the Southern States
Lumber Company of which he is now one of the executive officers.

His aptitude for his work; his eagerness to perform promptly and with
precision every task assigned to him; his determination to brook no
opposition in his way to success; his constant and calculating effort to
render his services indispensable to his employers, and his steady and
unyielding integrity of both purpose and conduct were very soon recognized
and rewarded both by increased compensation and promotion.

Of New England origin, being a descendant of Thomas Bingham, born in
Sheffield, England, in 1642, who emigrated to America and settled in
Connecticut in 1659, he inherited principles and habits of frugality, and
commenced the accumulation of a capital, through savings from his earnings,
at the very threshhold of his career. These savings were not boarded, but
were no sooner accumulated in small sums than they were put to work. The
accretions were added to the original capital, with the inevitable result
that the savings of modest proportions at the commencement, multiplied
rapidly and from a penniless youth of eighteen years of age, who settled
among strangers, a thousand miles removed from his home and those whose
interest in his character development and success was greatest, he has in
eighteen years not only established himself as one of the leaders in the
commercial circles of one of the country's greatest seaports and export
centers; has not only impressed his character and individuality upon a
community with a population of 30,000 people, but while doing this, has also
accumulated a comfortable, though not extravagant competency.

A few years after his settlement in Pensacola, he was followed there by his
parents and other members of his immediate family, all of whom are now
residents of Pensacola.

In 1897 he was married to Miss Fannie Augusta Oerting, a native of
Pensacola, of Danish parentage and five children have been born to the union
three daughters and two sons ranging in age from ten months to ten years,
all of whom are living.

In politics he is a Republican of the modern school. He was a candidate on
the Republican ticket for representative in the Legislature from Escambia
county in 1908, and received the largest vote which has been cast for a
Republican candidate for any office in the county since 1881, receiving
clear majorities in
several of the city precincts, but failing of election on complete returns
from the country districts. As a politician he is a resourceful and joyful
fighter and a pleasing and effective speaker.

In religious affiliation he is a Presbyterian. He is also a member of the
Young Menís Christian Association, the Concordia Club (social), the
Pensacola Chamber of Commerce, the Sons of the American Revolution, Sons of
Federal Veterans and the Masonic Fraternity.

He has contributed quite extensively on business, and civic improvement
topics to Pensacola newspapers, and in the spring of 1907 was the author of
a political pamphlet in support of his candidacy as a Republican for a minor
city office, which was a gem of American humor, common sense and Yankee
satire.